


Empty Town

by nobody_nobody_no



Category: Deltarune (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Loneliness, My First AO3 Post, Post-Canon, Self-Indulgent, character introspection, might be out of character?, sad fluffy boy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-28
Updated: 2018-11-28
Packaged: 2019-09-01 17:35:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,017
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16769734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nobody_nobody_no/pseuds/nobody_nobody_no
Summary: The prophecy is true.Every minute spent distracting himself with ubiquitous hobbies that he could only hope to find a use for, every day that seemed to last a year piling on top of him in his endless yearning for the heroes to arrive-It was all worth it. The thought brings a smile to his face, one bordering on true elation.





	Empty Town

**Author's Note:**

> this was only written because Ralsei is my favorite character and, seeing as I have nothing better to do (besides like fifty pounds of homework but let’s disregard that), I want to see him suffer, since I haven’t seen much of that kind of content

The prophecy is true. Now that their adventure is over, and Ralsei, safely hid among his hat again, is heading back to his castle, he can say that for sure. 

The prophecy is  _ true. _

Every minute spent distracting himself with ubiquitous hobbies that he could only hope to find a use for, every day that seemed to last a year piling on top of him in his endless yearning for the heroes to arrive-

It was all worth it. The thought brings a smile to his face, one bordering on true elation.

One he had only realized was in his repertoire just recently, the moment he met Kris. 

The moment his life gained true meaning.

He stops short for a beat. His life has always had meaning. It had meaning the moment he read the prophecy, the moment he accepted his role as the prince of darkness, whose presence could  _ fulfill  _ a prophecy. 

It’s as Kris told Seam: he’s legendary. They all were. Susie and Kris and him, and to an extent Lancer. After all, they fulfilled a prophecy.

Besides, he likes to think that everyone has a purpose, and even if they don’t, they still matter. They matter for the people in their life who love them. And if there’s nobody in their life to love them, then they matter for the people to come, and for themselves.

Ralsei, of course, couldn’t fall into the last categories. He is alone, a prince with no subjects. A being with no future of his own.

But he has the prophecy. He has a future written for him.

He has a purpose, and so he has meaning.

He strides ever forward, smiling as he thinks that. His smile, however, proves noticeably less joyful than before. But that’s absurd. Having meaning is a happy thing. So he is happy.

But he can’t help but think of Susie disregarding his prophecy. He can’t help but think of Susie being so insistent upon going home, back to her own life. He can’t help but wish that he had that drive-

But he doesn’t. Why would he want to have a life to return to when he’s perfectly content here?

He’s been alone all his life, why would that change even after he’s fulfilled the prophecy?

The smile falls off his face and he curses himself for being so ungrateful. He did it. He’s fulfilled his purpose!

So… what does he do next?

Even as he ponders this question, he knows the answer. After all, he’s already on his way there.

He goes back. He does what he usually does.

What is it he usually does?

He could bake a cake. (But nobody would eat it. He’s long since grown tired of the taste of his creations.)

He could sew something. (Be he’s already got his cloak, modified hat, and his scarf. Anything he sews would go to waste.)

He could read a book. (But every book in his library has been read and read and read, with the naive hope of passing the time, usually only succeeding in making time go slower.)

He’s already almost there. It would be nice to know what he wants to do.

He could try to sleep. Or take up a new hobby.

Those both sound pleasant in theory, but he knows he’d never be able to do that. 

He’s so excited from his adventure that he’s sure he couldn’t sleep if he tried. And every time he would try to think of something new to do, his thoughts would wander back to everything they’d done together.

How Kris was so gifted at ACTing, subduing any enemy with not even the thought of violence.

How Susie, so headstrong in her aggressive ways, learned to be compassionate in the name of friendship.

How Lancer, once determined to obey his father, overthrew and jailed him for the sake of his friends. (Though there was a time when he ran Ralsei over, and continually attacked them… but Ralsei forgives him. Of course he does. How could he not?)

He would die for them.

The thought come out of nowhere, and while Ralsei is surprised, he doesn’t disagree. He would never disagree, not before he met them and only knew them as mere concepts, and especially not now.

He would die for them, but he never really got the opportunity to. He almost killed them once, healing the king when it was clear that a tyrant such as him couldn’t learn the wrongs of his actions simply by hearing a few kindnesses. But he never sacrificed himself for them.

And now he would never get the chance to.

Is is selfish of him to wish that he could bear the burden of heroics? To wish that they were still here so that he could protect them the way Kris protected Susie? 

…

Thinking about it, it most definitely is.

He should be glad that they left before he could push his ridiculous, self-serving valor.

But he finds himself wishing they’d stay for even a little bit longer.

Because now, he finds himself standing in an empty town, locked doors decorating an unwelcoming coldness where silence is his family.

He makes his way into the castle, singing himself a lullaby to ease the pain.

But it only makes the emptiness drift from one sense to the other. He sits in the room where he first met Kris and Susie, surprised and indignant to feel a tear rolling down his face.

He shouldn’t cry. He’s fulfilled his destiny.

(But an empty town could never be fulfilling, not even to a darkner whose life has carried meaning in hope, dreaming that he may someday find light in his somber home.)

(He wonders, now that he has no greater meaning, if he can find one for himself. All the books in his library never prepared him for finding a future for himself. He’s always depended on what was written for him. He’s always depended on the prophecy.)

((He knows he could never do that, and now, in his empty town, he finally feels he fits in.))

  
  



End file.
